[gui-talk] Still hassling with my laptop keyboard

[Steve Cook]

I use laptop commands while on my desktop computer as well.  This helps me keep up my skills of laptop commands.

Steve Cook
Assistive Technology Specialist
SC Commission for the Blind
1430 Confederate Avenue
Columbia, SC 29201
Phone: (803) 898-8788
Fax: (803) 898-8882
E-Mail: stcook at sccb.sc.gov


-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ted Shelly
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 2:36 PM
To: 'NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Still hassling with my laptop keyboard

Joel,

I use a laptop regularly and a desktop with a normal keyboard.  It is a pain
memorizing two different layouts, but it just takes practice.  I also have
partial sight, but not enough to see the key markings on my laptop without
using a video magnifier.  Occasionally I do get out the magnifier when I
can't remember where some of the function keys are (like the one to switch
to an external monitor).  But mostly I've learned to manage.  I'm on my 4th
laptop now and fortunately laptop keyboards are similar so there has not
been too much of a learning curve to switch.

Keep working with the laptop and eventually you will get the hang of it.

Ted

-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Joel Deutsch
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 3:14 PM
To: GUI-Talk
Subject: [gui-talk] Still hassling with my laptop keyboard

Hi listers,

Okay, please come clean. I know some of us are totally blind and some are
partial. I'm partial, myself, but I have no central vision thus can't read
at all with my eyes. Only with Jaws, recorded literature, and so forth. So
in dealing with this new machine of mine, which I'd hoped would be a handy
tool, I'm at a loss.

I thought I'd be able to get the hang of the keyboard with some effort. it's
an Acer with a number key pad so I don't have to learn the Jaws laptop key
commands.

but still there's no space between the keys and the sections of keys as I'm
accustomed to on a normal keyboard, and no matter how patiently I sit and
turn on Jaws Keyboard Help to explore and get the lay of the land, so to
speak, I just am finding it nearly impossible to operate the machine.

Please bear in mind that I'm a pretty damn good touch typist, plus a Jaws
user from way back with the current release. Ordinary stuff like that is not
impeding me. But try as I might, my fingers just can't figure out where keys
are, except in small, lucky instances and a few keys I happen to have taught
myself by now. I don't think this is gonna work.

I know I can get a USB keyboard to plug into this laptop, then set the
computer within earshot and sit back with only the keyboard on my lap. But
this ain't what I'd daydreamed about. I guess I didn't anticipate
realistically how tough this would be to do blind.

Please just tell the truth, guys. I think a number of you are using laptops,
at least as your secondary computers. How many of you actually use your
laptops (mine's an Acer PC, for what that matters) normally, and how many
use an auxiliary keyboard? Am I in a very low-skill class, sort of, if I
can't figure out how to type on something like this the way sighted people
do with their own laptops?

Ug. Bummed out. thanks for any helpful feedback.
and Happy New Year.

Joel


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